LORD GEORGE AND THE FARMING INTEREST. 433 



the modesty and also the indomitable perseverance 

 of my noble master, justify me in believing that if 

 his invaluable life had been spared, and he had 

 continued to give his strenuous attention to politics, 

 he would have played a very prominent and dis- 

 tinguished part in public life. Such was, however, 

 his inflexibility, that I question whether he would 

 have remained in Parliament after the complete 

 triumph of Free Trade. The one individual who 

 gained most by Lord George's death was undoubt- 

 edly Mr Disraeli, in whom there was a pliancy and a 

 disposition to make the best of the inevitable which 

 were wholly absent from Lord George's composition. 

 The latter would never have given up his advocacy 

 of Protection ; and, moreover, he never would have 

 forgiven Mr Disraeli and others who had stood by 

 his side as Protectionists for abandoning the con- 

 test and making terms with the enemy. 



It was Lord George's conviction, often expressed 

 by him in my hearing, that 45s. a quarter for Eng- 

 lish wheat spelt ruin to the farmer. His predic- 

 tions as to the decay of the agricultural interest 

 in these islands, consequent upon the repeal of the 

 Corn Laws in 1846, were truly prophetic, and have 

 been verified to the letter. Whether it is to the 

 advantage of the British race that the great urban 

 populations should get a so-called cheap loaf at the 

 cost of ruining the landlords, farmers, and farm 

 labourers, it is for the future, and for wiser heads 

 than mine, to determine. 



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